Choosing a spine surgeon

Posted by annie1 @annie1, 5 hours ago

I have a problem in that I have interviewed many surgeons and there are at least two who have very good reviews and I'm having a hard time deciding who to go with. One of the surgeons had one bad review out of all good reviews. The other one had no bad reviews at all. I had a minor surgery/decompression with one of them that was successful only for 4 months and then my symptoms came back. He's very likable guy has great reviews and would do the fusion but I am a little worried since the first time it didn't really stick. It's very hard to decide since I already have a relationship with him and I do like him. Can anyone identify with this kind of dilemma and share a way to choose which surgeon to work on me? I keep getting more recommendations also which you and makes it more complicated.

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laura1970 | @laura1970 | 2 hours ago

Personally I wouldn’t go so heavily on reviews. I would ask the surgeon how many of the procedure ur contemplating he has done this month, this year and this decade. Ask about success rate, complication rate, mortality rate, failure rate. Ask for the same numbers for the hospital as the ancillary staff are key variables. Ask how much of the procedure he will do himself as opposed to residents or surgically specialists (not surgeons but helpers). Ask if he would be willing to schedUle u for a day he wasn’t on call the night before.

Compare the two surgeons answers and go from there. A surgeon with good numbers will be proud of them and very willing to share them with you. If you experience hesitation or pushback when you ask, I think that is a red flag